Getting the SCORE on your business

When marketing guru Tom Patty asked Jon and Gila Kurtz what their business was about, the owners of Dog Is Good had a ready response, "Dog stuff."

Wrong answer – and one that derails many young businesses, said Patty, one of 100 local experts who mentor up-and-coming entrepreneurs as part of SCORE's program for small businesses.

He said new entrepreneurs may know the mechanics of running a business, but they often overlook the one thing that could make the difference in the success of their company: defining what they are about.

Patty calls it marketing in five words, being able to identify your target audience in five words and focus your efforts on them.

"It is not easy to do, but it's not complicated," Patty said.

For the Kurtzes, it was an aha moment in the development of their Los Alamitos company, which creates and markets T-shirts, coffee mugs, art and gifts for dog lovers.

"It drove us to think about everything we do in terms of, 'What are you about?'" Jon Kurtz said.

Gila Kurtz, a professional dog trainer, started Dog Is Good in 2007 in a small room in their quarters at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station, where her husband, a Navy captain, was base commander. Jon Kurtz joined the business when he retired in 2009.

Gila Kurtz got the idea for the business when she went to a dog training continuing education class and saw someone selling T-shirts that said things like, "I love my Dalmation." She thought she could do better.

Her idea was to market goods to people who are passionate about their dogs, using humor and sophistication with phrases like, "I like big mutts" and "Never walk alone."

The company had been in a slow growth pattern, but the Kurtzes wanted to take the business to the next level.

Jon Kurtz had heard about SCORE, a nonprofit business counseling service affiliated with the Small Business Administration. He visited SCORE's office in Santa Ana, but thought the programs were too basic, more for beginners who had never run a business.

Gila Kurtz later attended a women's networking group where Patty spoke as a SCORE mentor.

Patty discussed the marketing lessons he learned as former president of the powerhouse advertising firm Chiatt/Day, which represented companies such as Apple, Nike, Pizza Hut and Nissan Motors. He retired from Chiatt/Day in 1998 and began mentoring for SCORE in 2002, thinking small businesses could learn from his experience.

"I want to help small businesses grow their business," Patty said.

Gila Kurtz knew Patty was the mentor they had been looking for to help them with their company, which sells pet-themed goods online, in retail stores and at trade shows.

"He brought to the table a tremendous amount of expertise on marketing," she said.

The couple met Patty for occasional one-hour mentoring sessions for several years. He is available for mentoring two hours a day on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from October through March.

Gila Kurtz said he helped them understand that they needed to market their business by capturing the strong emotions dog lovers feel about their pets.

With Patty's targeted questioning, the Kurtzes went from identifying Dog is Good as "about dog stuff" to "people who love dogs as much as their children and are willing to spend money on them."

"He basically articulated what we always knew, but said it in a way that immediately hit us," she said. "It was a moment of significant enlightenment."

The insight prompted Jon Kurtz to create a new word to use in their marketing: dogvergnügen, the joy you feel in the presence of dog.

With that focus, the business started growing, increasing from $250,000 in sales in 2009 to $1 million last year, according to Jon Kurtz. They have begun licensing other products and soon will branch into cats and horses. SCORE recently recognized the company as one of the nonprofit's success stories.

After initially thinking SCORE would be of little use, Jon Kurtz has since become a SCORE convert. He started attending SCORE's CEO forums, small get-togethers of non-competing business owners who help each other with problem solving.

Jon Kurtz said his work with SCORE has taught him other lessons, but Patty's marketing advice is the thing that has made the biggest difference: It's all about the message.